Crude oil reached its historical high at around US147 a barrel in June 2008. Remember at that time when our cabinet ministers urged the people to accept the fact that we had entered a new era of high energy costs especially high crude oil prices and also urged the people to change their life styles in order to better coupe with a more challenging time.
In a short spell of not more than 4 months, crude oil prices start nosediving to the current levels of close to US60 a barrel. I wonder why the demands of oil can drop so drastically in less than 4 months even though a global recession or economic slowdown is imminent. The second finance minister said recently that the declining crude oil prices spell gloom for our economy as petroleum based products account for 40% of the government's projected revenue. Now, shall we be happy or not for a low crude oil price?
The question is; can the fundamentals change so drastically over such a short period of time with the anticipated global recession? Could the global energy demands decline so significantly just because of the fear factors rather than actual fundamental changes? Or the crude oil prices were skyrocketing since last year mainly due to the speculative ventures by certain parties and not because of actual surge in demands?
Speculative actions by big tycoons around the world have too often led to misery to civilians like you and me. Perhaps, economic slowdown like what we are currently facing is the time for those speculators to pay the price for their greed.
In a short spell of not more than 4 months, crude oil prices start nosediving to the current levels of close to US60 a barrel. I wonder why the demands of oil can drop so drastically in less than 4 months even though a global recession or economic slowdown is imminent. The second finance minister said recently that the declining crude oil prices spell gloom for our economy as petroleum based products account for 40% of the government's projected revenue. Now, shall we be happy or not for a low crude oil price?
The question is; can the fundamentals change so drastically over such a short period of time with the anticipated global recession? Could the global energy demands decline so significantly just because of the fear factors rather than actual fundamental changes? Or the crude oil prices were skyrocketing since last year mainly due to the speculative ventures by certain parties and not because of actual surge in demands?
Speculative actions by big tycoons around the world have too often led to misery to civilians like you and me. Perhaps, economic slowdown like what we are currently facing is the time for those speculators to pay the price for their greed.
1 comment:
speculation is the most heinous act in my opinion, and usually those speculate have tonnes of money to do so and at the expense of the poor.
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